Motivation for Turkish entry to the European Union - Essay Example

As a result of that the tensions of the Cold War between America and Soviet Union were visible in Europe until the cold war ends during the latter parts of twentieth century. Soon after the ending of cold war, European and American countries started thinking about cooperation rather than conflicts. As a result of that, ideologies like globalization has entered the horizon. The ending of cold war helped Eastern Europe to reduce its gap with Western Europe. The unification of two Germanys gave momentum to this process.

The call for regional integration or a unified Europe or European Union started to become a hotly debated topic after the unification of the two Germanys. “The term “regional integration” means combining parts into a whole, according to the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary” (Dosenrode, 2010, p.4). Moreover, the theories of Federalism and Functionalism, put forward by prominent scholars gave momentum to the integration process of Europe. It should be noted that Europe was functioning not as a whole, but as parts until the unification of the Germanys.

The efforts for European integration were started immediately after WWII. . Turkey is one country which is trying hard to become a permanent member in EU. Turkey is a Eurasian country of strategic importance because of its geographic location in between Asia and Europe. Its boundaries are located in two continents: Europe and Asia. That is why EU members are considering Turkey as a semi-European country. “Turkey has not yet become a member of the EU. Nevertheless, Turkey's candidacy to join the EU is still one of the most considerable and controversial topics within the European political arena” (Kunnecke, 2013, p.527) Turkey has started its effort to acquire membership in the European Economic Community from 1987 onwards.

Turkey is currently an associate member of the Western European Union. Moreover, they signed an agreement with the EU in 1995 and are officially recognized as a candidate for full membership now. Negotiations for accepting Turkey as full member of EU were started in 2005 and it is still going on. According to Audas (2013, p.183) “Turkey has been part of an ongoing process of integration with its European Union (EU) neighbours for year, and yet the debate for inclusion continues” According to Cendrowicz (2009), Turkey’s membership bid has become a major controversy of the ongoing enlargement of the European Union.

He has pointed out that French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are against the introduction of Turkey into EU because of the public opinion against Turkey in Europe. Moreover, the current Eurozone crisis is another factor which weakens Turkey’s stakes for a membership in EU. Even though, Turkey is a secular democratic state, the influence of Islamic religion on political